Cannes Film Festival with Breaking Through The Lens

This countdown to Cannes finally came to a close as I made my way to the 2019 Film Festival to attend the second annual Breaking Through The Lens event. The initiative gave ten female-identifying filmmakers the opportunity to pitch their projects to a room full of investors as part of the prestigious film fest. As some of you may know, I was asked to be one of the judges responsible for whittling down over 200 applications from 54 countries to the final ten – no easy task, I can tell you that!

It was so inspiring to see the womxn take to the stage and also meet the finalists in person. A huge shout out to co-founders Daphne Schmon, Emily Carlton and Elpida Stathatou who developed the programme as a direct response to the biggest barrier female directors experience when it comes to progressing in the industry – access to finance. Schmon said:

“There is a clear gender imbalance at the top levels of the industry. Last year we saw 82 celebrity women stand on the steps of the Palais at Cannes in protest. There is clearly a lot of good will and talk about change. But at a certain point, talk is not enough. We wanted to create an event that focused on practical actions, connecting women directly to the investors and distributors that can help get their films made.. The three of us are filmmakers ourselves – myself a Director, Emily a Writer and Elpida an Actress. This is an event by filmmakers for filmmakers. I was stunned to see over 200 applications come in from 54 countries this year – only our second year running BTTL. These numbers are evidence of the tremendous need and appetite for an event such as this. The Jury had an impossible task to narrow this down to 10 films that will present at the Cannes Film Festival. Afterwards, participants will be connected via email to funders that show interest in their project, and every effort will be taken to help them close the deal.”

Find out more about Breaking Through The Lens and the finalists here: www.breakingthroughthelens.co.uk.